Guest-Editing Smokelong

English: Image of Kentucky poet Madison Cawein writing at his desk. From The Story of a Poet: Madison Cawein by Otto Arthur Rothert. J. P. Morten and Company, 1921. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This week, until Sunday 2 June, I’ll be guest-editing Smokelong magazine. I’ll be reading fiction under 1000 words and choosing one story to be posted up on the site.

Here are the guidelines:

The SLQ aesthetic remains an ever-changing, ever-elusive set of principles, but it most likely has to do with these kinds of things:

* language that surprises* narratives that strive toward something other than a final punch line or twist* pieces that add up to something, oftentimes (but not necessarily always) meaning or emotional resonance* honest work that feels as if it has far more purpose than a writer wanting to write a story

Soon the anthology, ‘Smokelong Quarterly: The Best of the First Ten Years’ will be published, containing my story Lydia Before. More details to follow.